7 Tips to Coordinate Schedules with Clients

Successful, productive, and smooth-flowing collaborations come down to how efficient you are whenever you coordinate the meeting schedule with clients. It might take a little bit of practice and some skill, but you'll soon get the hang of client appointment scheduling. Because the purpose of each communication is to nurture the relationship, flawless meeting planning is essential for both you and your client.

We have a lot of useful tidbits for you below to help with scheduling meetings with clients, as well as shared calendar management and effective meeting coordination. We also have recommendations for scheduling tools for meeting professionally, that will help make the process more flawless, efficient, and time-saving. Whether you are a small business or a big corporation, this article is packed with useful and practical advice that you might find valuable.

How to coordinate schedules with clients

The important thing is to stay organized. Especially when you have more than one client and more than one project going on at the same time. The main challenge is keeping everything separate, sorted, and arranged to prevent scheduling conflicts and double-booking multiple people on your team.

Here are a few things that you can put into practice to get everything in order for schedule coordination:

• Start a project documentation docket per client as soon as they sign on

• Keep a log of items included in each client docket

• Make sure your log is updated regularly with new things being added to each docket

• Assign a color scheme or code per client in your shared calendar to make them distinguishable

• Share your calendar with clients (if you're able to) so they can clearly see your available time slots

• Schedule regular check-ins as necessary

1. Complete and share your agenda with meeting participants

There's nothing worse than getting lost in thought and starting to go back and forth in the middle of a meeting, sputtering and wasting the client's time. Every meeting has a purpose, and it's essential to identify what it is before you get started with planning to save time and effort.

This is done by putting together your meeting agenda before you start coordinating schedules with clients. You can ask yourself these questions when coming up with an agenda:

• What is the purpose of the meeting? What are the perceived issues and anticipated solutions?

• Which items will be discussed at the meeting?

• Who will be the presenters and decision-makers at said meeting?

• Who should be the meeting attendees?

• Where will the meeting be held? Would you require one of the video conferencing apps?

• How long will the meeting go on for?

Remember to keep the structure loose at the beginning stages of planning. Your agenda can be as simple as bullet points of discussion items. You can then have your audience fill in the rest if they have anything to add.

The conversation will flow naturally to allow the session to be productive in this way. If someone in the room is going off on tangents that are not connected to the main purpose of the meeting, use your notes to bring the conversation back to the important tasks.

Once you've completed your agenda, attach it to your meeting invitation and scheduling links before you send it out. This allows the attendees to get back to you with the items they wish to cover or to let you know that they would like the floor for a certain amount of time so they can present something to the room.

After the agenda for the meeting is all done, prepare yourself for the meeting. That means:

• Choose the venue on the booking page

• Securing supplies like pens, paper, bottled water, and more

• Completing all the presentation decks

• Finalizing the list of presenters

• Establishing the date and time for the meeting

2. Provide your attendees with options

Some popular pop star in the 70s said it best: you can't always have what you want. That is absolutely the truth in business, mostly when you want to sit down with a client, but they're unavailable.

If a meeting is necessary, give your clients options. When trying to coordinate schedules with clients, provide them with the following choices:

• Two or three dates and times for the meeting

• Event types (in-person or virtual via a video call)

• Full team or one-on-one

• Duration (30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 1 hour)

• Split meetings depending on the time zone or time differences

Keep in mind that emergencies happen when you most need them not to, so make room for tardiness, cancellations, and no-shows. Ask everyone invited to inform you ahead of time if possible.

If not, make sure that they have a way of contacting you to let you know of last-minute causes for delay or cancellation. If it comes to it, go back to your scheduling tool or a calendar right away to find the earliest time slots you can find.

3. Make good use of online scheduling tools

In this day and age of super-smart, sleek, and snazzy mobile devices, more and more people tend to have an aversion to video calls. No one likes an impromptu phone call, to be honest.

To give your clients time to get ready for a check-in with you – whether it's an audio or video call - consider using online scheduling tools like shared calendars. These can prove highly useful whenever you're looking to coordinate schedules with clients, whether it's a meeting or a service appointment, onsite or virtual.

If you have a business that provides services, get a CRM with a calendar that includes appointment client scheduling tools. You won't miss anything important anytime soon so long as everything is documented properly and confirmed.

There is available software in the market that allows you to also log phone calls and other communications with clients to chronicle each interaction. This way, you can easily customize the care you provide for a truly personalized experience.

4. Send out invites containing comprehensive details

We mostly freeze or opt out of things when we're unclear or unsure as to what's in it or what it's for. Think about it. If you get a meeting invite as an initial email but don't know what it's about, will you go?

There's always a good amount of trepidation attached to not knowing. Take all the guesswork out for your clients. Be upfront and attach all the pertinent details to your meeting invite when you send them out. These may include:

• Time, date, and venue

• Address for onsite meetings

• Scheduling link and password for virtual ones

• Attendees

• Points to discuss (issues and solutions)

• Breakdown of the hour or timeline of the meeting

If you already have your agenda completed before you coordinate schedules with clients, you can attach it as well. You're giving your clients a clear picture of how things will go and setting the proper expectations. It also affords them the chance to add their input if they wish to discuss another topic to add to the originally published agenda.

When sending out invites, leave nothing to chance and use every channel of communication available to you. Some clients prefer emails, while others like social media or sms messages better.

If you have the software for meeting scheduling, use it and make sure that all your bases are covered. This way, no one will be able to use the excuse that they didn't receive your invite or even see it. Use read receipts as well when you can.

5. Send reminders and reconfirm before the day

Wouldn't it be a bummer if you're all set and raring to go just to have a fraction of the people you've invited show up? That would be deflating. Save yourself the disappointment by covering all of your bases for efficient client time coordination.

First up: send out automatic reminders. Send one out a week, and then a day until finally, an hour prior to the actual meeting. This gives everyone involved the opportunity to get ready or even reach out if they need to reschedule at the last minute.

Second, reconfirm with follow-up emails. They might have said yes at first, but then life happens, and perhaps they forget to let you know about any scheduling conflicts. When you send a message to reconfirm the meeting, your attendees are able to reevaluate their availability and let you know if yes is indeed a yes or if the appointment should be moved.

You can use this time to make last-minute checks and changes such as:

• Going over your presentation deck and agenda

• Reconfirming the meeting venue, date and time

• Checking your equipment (cameras, mics, phones, projectors, etc.)

• Assigning a note-taker

• Testing the meeting link and internet connection stability

• Getting other supplies like stationery and snacks

6. Be flexible for efficient client time coordination

Foster a culture of flexibility and understanding whenever you coordinate schedules and book meetings with clients by being open to changes. Encourage everyone involved to voice their opinions so you can all agree on a mutually beneficial setup.

When you open the discussion and ask people to pipe in, it minimizes the chances of last-minute changes. Keep in mind that there can always be differences in culture, priorities, and time zones, as well as other preferences and custom workflows per client.

There could also be something in your meeting agenda that a client would like to discuss with you privately instead of a roomful of people. Others might prefer sending you their notes via email before the meeting so you can discuss and present them on their behalf.

At the same time, there may be something in your agenda that a client finds offensive or unnecessary. Being flexible in asking for opinions and feedback is one of the best practices in client schedule coordination and can save everyone a lot of discomfort.

Some clients will be more demanding than others. They might be the nervous type, really keen on making sure that things are being done and that they are being done on time, especially when it comes to coordinating schedules.

Assign a reliable, responsible, and professional team member as a dedicated client manager so you have one person to liaise with them on a regular basis. Their client manager can also give clients regular updates on the completion of tasks and projects.

Doing this calms their nerves while also reassuring them that their project is on its way to a timely completion. From there, you can schedule monthly or bi-monthly catch-ups directly with you for general reviews and major updates.

7. Use your meeting time diligently

A great way to show your clients you are capable, reliable, and stable is to make good use of your meeting time. Break down the hour (or how long the meeting is scheduled for) evenly to ensure that everything that needs to be discussed is covered and not excessively time-consuming.

It would also be great if you have time left over for questions, concerns, and clarifications. With a structure like this, you will find that having to coordinate schedules with clients is a lot easier in the future.

Pay attention to how you divide the meeting time, making sure to give everyone a chance to add anything to the conversation if they need to. Stick to the topic and don't go off on unnecessary digressions to keep the discussion relevant. If you or someone else points out a problem, prod the room to seek out solutions as a team.

Here is a sample meeting time breakdown that you can use:

• A rundown of matters to discuss

• Acknowledgments of attendees

• Discussion proper

• Agreeing on a solution or plan of action

• Time allotted for questions, concerns, and clarifications

• Recap

• Setting up the next meeting time

Once the meeting is wrapped, get your note-taker to finish up on the meeting notes and polish them up. Send it to every person in your invite list – whether they were present or not – so everyone is on the same page at your next assembly. Store all the relevant files in your team drive so anyone who needs to can access and review them.

Coordinate schedules with clients using Bitrix24

When it comes to client satisfaction, the key is efficiency. Whether it's having to coordinate schedules with clients, identifying problem areas in a project, or a simple weekly progress check, everything should be done quickly and with purpose and precision.

There are a lot of tools, apps, and software available out there, but your best bet for finding everything you need in one place is Bitrix24. With this meeting scheduling tool, you can:

• Implement automated scheduling

• Create a scheduling poll

• Coordinate meeting times

• Prevent double booking

• Sent email reminders

• Save contact details

• Sent back and forth emails

Bitrix24 is the ultimate solution hub for help on how to coordinate with clients better. Staying connected saves time, prevents misunderstandings, and keeps tasks completed within deadlines. Elevate the quality and efficiency of your coordination and communication with clients. Sign up today and let Bitrix24 take care of your client appointment scheduling needs.

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